Where are they now? Jack Ingram

John Supinie

Wednesday

Jun 22, 2011 at 12:01 AMJun 22, 2011 at 9:13 PM

A look at former Illinois basketball player Jack Ingram.

*****EMBARGOED UNTIL SUNDAY, JUNE 26*****

CHAMPAIGN — Six years later, Jack Ingram still felt the noise of close to 16,000 Illinois basketball fans whipped into a frenzy during the once-in-a-lifetime rally against Arizona in the NCAA regional final at Rosemont in 2005.

“It still gives me goose bumps now,” said Ingram, a reserve forward and unsung hero that night as the Illini rallied from 15 down with less than four minutes left to eventually win in overtime and reach the Final Four for the first time in 16 years. They call it the Miracle on Mannheim.

Trailing by three with about 45 seconds left, Ingram tipped loose an inbounds pass by Arizona. He then set a screen for Deron Williams, whose jumper tied the game, forced overtime and nearly brought down the house.

“You could feel the vibrations with how loud it was,” Ingram said. Without Ingram, no one knows if the Illini would have reached the Final Four six years ago.

Ingram, a transfer from Tulsa, produced his best basketball in the final month of his college career, then went overseas and played professionally for four years. He spent three of them in Slovenia, where he met Lucie Conkova, a native of the Czech Republic who also played pro basketball. They married more than a year ago, then returned to the United States.

Ingram put his electrical engineering degree to work after accepting a job at Delphi in Kokomo, Ind., working on hybrid automobiles.

“Engineering is something that you never master,” Ingram said. “There’s always something new to learn. I’ve always liked electronics and power. I wanted to do something real, build something with electronics and dealing with power.”

The tingles from that game might be enough to drive one of those cars.

So Jack, about the inbounds pass. Did you have one handful of jersey or two when covering Arizona's Channing Frye?

“I was surprised I didn’t knock him down,” Ingram said. “I was trying to climb up over him.”

John Supinie can be reached at Johnsupinie@aol.com. Follow him on Twitter @JohnSupinie.

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